MT time now (Mountain Time)

What MT means

MT (Mountain Time) is the clock of the US and Canadian Rocky Mountain region. It is not a fixed offset: it means MST (UTC−7) in winter and MDT (UTC−6) from the second Sunday of March at 2:00 AM to the first Sunday of November at 2:00 AM.

Why the generic name is the safe one

MT names a region’s clock, not an offset. It means standard time in winter and daylight time in summer, the way a wall clock in that region actually reads. That makes it the right choice for meeting invitations, broadcast schedules and opening hours: “2 PM MT” is correct on any date, while “2 PM MST” is wrong for about eight months of the year.

In software, the matching IANA zone is America/Denver. Store times in UTC and convert with the zone, never with a fixed offset, or your events will drift by an hour twice a year.

Mountain Time has the largest exception: Arizona (except the Navajo Nation) stays on MST, so in summer “MT” in Phoenix and in Denver differ by an hour.

Where and when MT is used

12 zones follow MT: MST in winter, MDT in summer. Computed from tzdata under the current rules.

Related zones and conversions

• MST time
• MDT time
• America/Denver time zone
• UTC time
• Time zones of the world
• Daylight saving time
• Time zone converter